Along an assembly line, various types of articles, such as for example, diapers and other absorbent articles, may be assembled by adding components to and otherwise modifying an advancing, continuous web of material. For example, in some processes, advancing webs of material are combined with other advancing webs of material. In other examples, individual components created from advancing webs of material are combined with advancing webs of material, which in turn, are then combined with other advancing webs of material. Webs of material and component parts used to manufacture diapers may include: backsheets, topsheet, absorbent cores, front and/or back ears, fastener components, and various types of elastic webs and components such as leg elastics, barrier leg cuff elastics, and waist elastics. Once the desired component parts are assembled, the advancing web(s) and component parts are subjected to a final knife cut to separate the web(s) into discrete diapers or other absorbent articles. The discrete diapers or absorbent articles may also then be folded and packaged.
Various methods and apparatuses may be used for attaching different components to the advancing web and/or otherwise modify the advancing web. Some production operations are configured to construct elastic laminates including elastics bonded with the one or more substrates advancing in a machine direction. The operations may be further configured to cut and/or otherwise deactivate discrete lengths of the elastics. In some operations, an elastic laminate may advance through a cutting station that cuts the elastic in the advancing laminate. However, some current configurations have certain drawbacks. For example, some present cutting apparatuses may cause unintended damage to the elastic laminate, such as by severing the substrate while cutting the elastic. In addition, the blades on some current cutting apparatuses may be susceptible to wear after relatively short operating periods. Such blade wear may manifest itself in inconsistent elastic cutting. Further, it may be relatively expensive to repair worn cutting devices. Consequently, it would be beneficial to provide elastic cutting methods and apparatuses that are configured to provide relatively consistent cutting of elastics without excessive and/or unintentional damage to the substrate. It would also be beneficial to provide elastic cutting methods and apparatuses that are less susceptible to blade wear and that may be configured for ease of repair at relatively low costs.